The present invention relates to a process for the production of polystyrene, and more especially, to a polymerization process for styrene monomer which results in an accelerated rate of polymerization.
In recent years the popularity of polystyrene has increased tremendously, particularly in view of more frequent use of this material in containers, in the automobile industry, in the toy industry, and in many other areas of commerce. One solution to the problem of producing an increasing supply of polystyrene is to enlarge plant size capacity for the production thereof; however, this solution has several disadvantages. For example, it involves an irreversible commitment of extremely large sums of capital and in addition, there exists always a lag of several years before the newly constructed plant capacity actually comes on stream.
A far better solution to the problem resides in means for improving the efficiency of existing plant capacity. In this way, the total annual production of polystyrene could be increased without the construction of new production lines. Most advantageously, the increase in production capacity for existing facilities should involve as little capital expenditure as possible. Accordingly, there exists today a significant need for means of increasing the annual production of polystyrene without incurring the expenses and/or delay of constructing new production facilities or the expenses of significantly modifying existing facilities.